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Average new patient VA appointment wait: 30-55 days

The average wait for a new patient to get an appointment at one of Louisiana's three major VA medical centers in Alexandria, New Orleans and Shreveport runs anywhere from 30 to 55 days, depending on the hospital and the type of care sought, data released Monday by the Veterans Affairs Department shows.

Average new patient VA appointment wait: 30-55 days

The Alexandria Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Pineville does need to improve, according to its local director, Martin Traxler. Traxler said a review of the local system isn?t final, but that the hospital needs to improve in specialty areas.
Tia Owens-
Powers/towens
@thetowntalk
.com
The V.A. Medical Center in Pineville on Tuesday, May 27, 2014. --Tia Owens-Powers/towens@thetowntalk.com(Photo11: Tia Owens-Powers/ tpowers@thetow)

NEW ORLEANS – The average wait for a new patient to get an appointment at one of Louisiana's three major VA medical centers in Alexandria, New Orleans and Shreveport runs anywhere from 30 to 55 days, depending on the hospital and the type of care sought, data released Monday by the Veterans Affairs Department shows.

More than 1,500 new patients were unable to get an appointment in 90 days or less: 693 in Alexandria, 424 in New Orleans and five in Shreveport.

The average wait times at the three facilities were not the nation's worst for new patients but they exceeded the now-abandoned goal of 14 days set by the VA.

In Alexandria, the average wait is 33 days for a primary care appointment, 55 days for specialty care and 32 days for mental health, the figures showed.

In New Orleans, that average is 52 days for primary, 45 for specialty and 27 for mental health appointments.

In Shreveport, the average is 44 days for primary, 47 for specialty and 31 for mental health appointments.

At Alexandria, the report said, 137 new patients waited for an appointment more than 120 days.

The findings are from a nationwide audit of 731 VA hospitals and outpatient clinics. The report indicated all three hospitals are in for a harder look, listing all three sites as requiring further review, "based on a review of qualitative responses by front-line staff to questions contained in site audit reports."

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu issued a statement calling for a review of all VA facilities in Louisiana. "The extremely long wait times at Louisiana VA facilities found in today's report are completely unacceptable and have further broken the trust of our veterans," the statement said.

Veterans already in the system fared better than new patients. The figures included percentages of appointments filled within 30 days when an electronic list of new patients was excluded. In Alexandria that was 92 percent of more than 27,900 appointments scheduled; In New Orleans, it was 98 percent of 34,781; In Shreveport, 99 percent of 44,001.